Aftermath of War

"What? Lord Raikage is dead?"

"That's impossible! He was the strongest man in our village!"

"Damn it, those damned Iwagakure bastards! Ganging up on him!"

"The battle between Iwagakure and Konoha is over. The Yellow Flash has appeared on the battlefield, and the pressure on the front lines has doubled."

Tobitake Tonbo extracted the fragmented information from his mind.

With that enhancement tool, things were indeed much easier for him now.

Sure enough, the battle between the Third Raikage and Iwagakure had happened. His death, coupled with the end of the battle between Konoha and Iwagakure, had brought about these changes.

From the memories, he learned that the A-B Combination was already renowned at this point.

The two had conquered Kumogakure's many shinobi with their overwhelming strength.

After Minato Namikaze joined the battlefield, Orochimaru immediately dispatched him to intercept the A-B Combination.

After only a few exchanges, both sides withdrew.

With Kumogakure's central pillar dead, its internal command had also fallen into disarray. Even with their formidable overall strength, facing attacks from both Konoha and Iwagakure had left them exhausted.

"As expected, Kumogakure really was badass. They fought like beasts!"

Kumogakure had actually taken the initiative to start a war with Iwagakure. They were truly confident.

They had fought on two fronts, yet he had never noticed that when watching the anime before.

The owner of this head had merely been a Kumogakure Chunin. Since he was already dead, his memories contained no important intelligence.

Still, the Nature Transformation of his Lightning Release ninjutsu was worth studying.

It also made Tobitake Tonbo realize just how remarkable the Chidori Kakashi had created at twelve years old truly was.

No wonder he had become a Jōnin at such a young age.

Such extreme application of Nature Transformation—or rather, whether Shape Transformation or Nature Transformation—was generally something only a Jōnin's level of control could achieve.

The techniques involved were not simply a matter of turning chakra into lightning. There were many more intricacies within.

It seemed creating his own Chidori for fun was impossible.

The same went for the Rasengan.

If Chidori was an advanced application of Nature Transformation, then the Rasengan was an advanced application of Shape Transformation.

He had tried it a few months ago. Though he did not have much chakra, he had still wanted to pay tribute to the original protagonist's little ball.

But he had discovered that it involved many techniques, not merely the casual few words Jiraiya had said in the original work.

The original probably had too little space and needed to cut things down.

That was why it only included a few key points, leaving many details unshown.

It was like the Daoist phrase, "By urgent decree of the law." It sounded simple, but he had heard there was a great deal behind it.

The reading was complete.

Tobitake Tonbo picked up paper and a pen from beside him, writing down every piece of intelligence he had extracted.

He was extremely thorough, recording everything from complete fragments to scattered bits and pieces.

From wetting himself at age three to learning ninjutsu...

In short, as long as it was a memory he could extract, he carefully recorded it.

He perfectly fulfilled the duties of a working man.

That was how the Analysis Division worked. After writing up the intelligence, they handed the documents to their superiors.

Their superiors then compiled all the materials, extracted the important intelligence, and passed it to ANBU, who delivered it to the Hokage.

Once everything was done, he submitted the documents.

"Oh, right. Department Head Inoichi said this is your first time joining the Konoha Analysis Team, so there are some procedures you don't know. He asked me to inform you."

After Tobitake Tonbo finished his work, the attendant shinobi spoke.

"Huh? There's more?"

Come on, he had already finished work. Shouldn't he be going home to eat now?

After all, the enemy had dedicated corpse recovery units to prevent intelligence from being gathered from bodies, so the Analysis Division did not have as much work as one might imagine.

Unless it was an intense battlefield.

Even on a battlefield, judging by Tobitake Tonbo's experience, there was not that much work.

That was the way of shinobi. Any possibility of information being leaked would be eliminated.

"It's like this. Within the village, the Analysis Division usually does not have much memory-reading work, so to avoid wasting resources, you may visit the Analysis Division's library."

"It contains many instructional books on intelligence analysis, and they are very important for information shinobi like yourself."

The attendant shinobi explained.

"Of course, if you are not interested, you may also take on some simple missions and do your part for the village."

He then listed many things Tobitake Tonbo could do in his spare time.

After hearing him out, Tobitake Tonbo understood. The members of the Analysis Division were like bricks when they had nothing to do—moved wherever they were needed.

No wonder, when he had watched the anime before, he had often seen Konoha's two gate guardians doing transport work, guard duty, and examiner work from time to time.

"Come to think of it, Kotetsu Hagane and Izumo Kamizuki were both my classmates. I wonder how they're doing now?"

Entering the Analysis Division's library, Tobitake Tonbo looked around.

It was roughly the size of a soccer field, with rows upon rows of bookshelves.

He casually opened a book and found that it was filled with analysis cases from the past.

Macroscopic analysis, logical analysis, microscopic analysis...

In short, it began with the big picture, filled in the small details, and analyzed through logic. It was extremely comprehensive.

It meant not overlooking any possible piece of information.

Naturally, it did not draw from only one discipline. Many other fields supplemented it.

Mathematics, geography, medicine, logic, ninjutsu studies, sealing studies...

To determine the enemy's time of movement, for example, one needed geography and mathematics, as well as shinobi movement speeds, in order to calculate the distance to the enemy headquarters and estimate where they had been before...

Tobitake Tonbo's mind worked well now, and he read with great relish. Before long, he was completely engrossed.

As the saying went, if you understood what you were reading, you would enjoy it.

If you did not understand it, it would gradually become dull.

At that moment, he was immersed in the joy of learning.

And so, the days passed one by one.

Every day, he went to work at the Analysis Division. Besides reading memories, helping analyze intelligence was also part of the job.

After work, Tobitake Tonbo would visit Ichiraku Ramen.

It made his father, Tobitake Tosei, wonder whether something was wrong with him. What about his loving dinner?

He even secretly followed him to see where he was going to eat.

When he saw Ayame inside Ichiraku Ramen, Tobitake Tosei instantly felt that his son had grown up.

Not only was he a Chunin, but he also knew to find himself a wife. Tobitake Tosei felt deeply gratified.

So every evening, he only cooked for himself.

Meanwhile, besides clocking in at work every day, Tobitake Tonbo practiced and developed ninjutsu.

With his powerful talent and the complete ninjutsu he occasionally uncovered while extracting intelligence, he would not waste such opportunities.

He also spent some money to exchange for Genjutsu lessons in the village.

After all, those Iwagakure fellows with their Will of Stone and those hot-tempered Kumogakure brutes were not experts in Genjutsu.

From the memories of the enemies he read, Tobitake Tonbo watched the war slowly progress.

First, Kumogakure withdrew its troops and firmly defended its headquarters.

Next, Iwagakure also pulled back after Kumogakure's retreat.

Sunagakure had also elected the Fourth Kazekage and submitted a letter of surrender. Rasa took on the village's burdens.

Now, only the aftermath of war remained on the battlefield.

Sure enough, just as he had expected, as long as he worked steadily, the Analysis Division's work was fairly easy.

Or rather, it was easy for him. The others still became exhausted after taking in too many memories.

For example, Sheng Shimon complained to him every day about having to read memories constantly, saying he was about to go insane.